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Dr. Paul Polak believes that traditional approaches to alleviating poverty have simply missed the mark. He believes that current institutional structures continue to spend billions of dollars in poor countries with very little to show for it. They have overlooked the obvious: what poor people really need is more income. They don’t need donations and poverty programs; they do need renewable income that can support their families and provide long-term security.

“Poor people are poor because they don’t have enough money. It’s that simple. Eradicating poverty is about helping the poor find ways to generate income. And that’s doable. Even the poorest people in the world have the innate ability to create wealth,” Polak says.

With a personal interest in agriculture that dates back to his boyhood in Millgrove, Ontario, Polak has focused his attention on assisting the world’s poorest people — dollar-a-day farmers in developing countries — in finding efficient, affordable ways to produce and sell high-value crops. After spending thousands of hours in the fields with these farmers, he has learned that in order for them to become successful, “they need access to very cheap small-farm irrigation, good seeds and fertilizer, and markets where they can sell their crops at a profit.”

Through his Colorado-based nonprofit company, International Development Enterprises (IDE), he designed affordable irrigation tools (such as treadle pumps) and mass-marketed them to small-acreage farmers. He helped those farmers choose the four or five high-value crops (fruits and vegetables) that would grow best in their area, set up private-sector supply chains that sold them the needed seeds and fertilizer, and helped them get their products to the marketplace.

Polak’s no-nonsense, common-sense approach to alleviating poverty has flown in the face of traditional wisdom, requiring him to find backers in the private sector.

He acknowledges that his quest to eradicate poverty has not been easy, but he has stayed the course, developing a sense of humor about it all along the way. There were times, many years back, he relates, when his then teenage daughters would welcome him home after a long trip half way around the world, by playing the theme song to Man of La Mancha.

However, Polak was doing anything but tilting at windmills. IDE estimates that their efforts have ended poverty for 17 million dollar-a-day farmers… permanently. Their goal is to raise that number to 150 million by 2025.

How important is Polak’s quest to eradicate poverty? “We’re talking about the future of our planet,” Polak says. Ending poverty, he feels, is the most single important step in restoring nature’s balance on the planet. Poverty impacts virtually every important issue facing today’s world. Everything from global warming to worldwide pandemics is negatively impacted by poverty, he contends.

One thing for certain — the statistics are staggering. Of the roughly 6.6 billion people in the world, about 3 billion earn less than $2 a day and 1.2 billion of those people make less than $1 a day. And most of the very poorest are dollar-a-day farmers in developing countries.

He’s been campaigning to institute a new way of looking at poverty for over 25 years. Polak was named by Scientific American magazine as one of the “Scientific American 50”— the magazine’s second annual list recognizing outstanding acts of leadership in technology in 2003. In 2004, that same magazine identified him as one of eight visionaries who can positively impact the future of our planet over the next 50 years.

In 2006, his programs received a big boost from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, when they committed 14 million dollars to Polak’s mission. On January 28th of this year, they granted another 27 million to IDE to pay for the distribution of micro-irrigation systems to about 250,000 farm families in 14 states of India.

His work is getting noticed. No one accuses Paul Polak of tilting at windmills anymore. The “Man of La Mancha” has become the man of the hour — the one behind a revolution in how we think about poverty and what we do about it. Polak’s plan is outlined in his new book, Out of Poverty: What works when traditional approaches fail.

Sitting down to talk with Paul Polak is like sinking into a comfortable chair: he makes you feel completely at ease. His quiet manner is both pleasant and disarming. But there is nothing laid back about his impassioned efforts to eradicate poverty.

Why did you write Out of Poverty?

Because I’m a troublemaker. I wrote it to help create a revolution in how we think about poverty and what we do about it. Ending poverty is about using common sense. But common sense is not always that common.

You talk about three great poverty eradication myths that undermine our ability to serve the global poor effectively.

Yes. There are three commonly held beliefs embraced by the current leaders of the poverty projects — the current institutional structure of the poverty community. Let’s look at them one at a time:

Myth #1: We can donate people out of poverty.
A lot of charities do that, from soup kitchens on. Most charitable organizations in a variety of fields give things away. That’s a fairly common approach to helping poor people. It warms your heart and you feel good about it. But, if you can find a way to help someone make a living you’re doing a lot more than you could by giving them a Christmas turkey.
Plus, the donation approach simply doesn’t work. In Zimbabwe, for example, we did an experiment where we provided small irrigation drip systems to poor people through existing non-profit organizations, organizations that, by the rules of the donor, had to give them away. Only 25 percent of those drip systems were ever used. A lot of the people who accept things as a gift are not motivated to use them.
Not expecting the poor to invest in their own wealth creation is a tragic mistake. They need to be willing to invest their own time and money. Great ideas are worthless if the farmer isn’t willing to commit to them. Having a stake in their own future makes a huge difference. To move out of poverty, poor people have to invest their own time and money and they will do that if you offer them something that has a low level of risk while meeting their needs.

Myth #2: National Economic Growth will end poverty.
There is a belief that all we have to do is maintain a high per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in developing countries and dollar-a-day poverty will end. Although it’s true that the industrial revolution ended poverty for a heck of a lot of people, it also left behind all those people in areas that are not directly affected by urban industrial growth. It is true that we do need growth to end poverty, but it has to be economic growth specific to where the poor live, such as remote rural areas with one-acre farms, or urban slums.

Myth #3: Big Business will end poverty.
The problem is that big business, the way it operates now, generally doesn’t see emerging markets as a profit sector. But, multi-national corporations have tremendous untapped potential to dramatically change the lives of poor people if they start focusing their energies on poor people as customers. Big business can make a big difference in ending poverty, but only if they go through a revolution in how they price, design and market their products to the poor.

Polak feels that a combination of working with the poor to assess their needs and formulate success strategies combined with finding effective and affordable ways for them to invest in their own prosperity are key to ending poverty. His newest venture, Design-Revolution (DREV): Design for the Other 90 Percent, addresses the affordability gap for poor consumers. Whenever we think or talk about design, he claims, it’s invariably about addressing the needs of the richest 10 percent of the people in the world — the privileged minority. Sophisticated technologies come with a high price tag, he says, and not only are those technologies too expensive for poor families, but they have little or no application in their day-to-day struggle for survival. For example, a bigger and better tractor is useless to a farmer working with ¼ acre plot of land and no money to pay for gas.

What he believes does make sense, however, are affordable, low technology items such as better drip irrigation systems and water storage solutions. Although IDE has already produced and sold well over 2 million affordable treadle pumps (at $25 each) to poor farmers, they continue to pursue a pump design that is more effective and even less expensive.

“The ruthless pursuit of affordability” is an integral part of DREV. Polak adapts Lombardi’s famous words by saying, “Affordability isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”
Polak’s group has challenged designers from all over the world to design products for the other 90 percent. He is working with universities, such as Stanford, to enlist design students in meeting the challenge of alleviating poverty around the world.

What’s on his current wish list? He names everything from affordable enclosed water-storage systems, with 1,000-3,000 liter capacity to… a $100 house.

Where do you think you’ll focus your attention next?

What I’m working on now is creating global businesses that make a lot of money serving very poor people. Their success will demonstrate undeniably the profit potential that’s being missed, making it inevitable that multinational corporations will get into this market.

Can you give us a hint?

Sure. Now, we’re negotiating with a group called Safe Water Network. One of the main leaders of that group is Paul Newman. That group is likely going to fund our business partners in the research and development phase of a global business that makes money by providing affordable, safe drinking water to poor people… water that will taste good.

We have set up pilot tests in India of small water kiosks that can provide 5,000-10,000 liters of safe drinking water.There are already water kiosks in various areas, but the cheapest one is $3,000 and most of them are $20,000 and up. The total cost of the kiosk we’re designing is targeted at $300.

They’ll be set up at places where people gather — like Hindu pilgrimage sites — where they can get 10,000-20,000 visitors a day (100,000 on high usage days). We’ll take a year to pilot test it all. We have to establish bullet-proof quality control standards for franchisees and yank the franchise if they don’t meet them. At the end of that year, if we have a model that works, we’ll quickly ramp up to 10,000 franchises. The company makes money, the new entrepreneur-franchisees [who can now afford to go into business for themselves] make money and the poor customers get safe drinking water at a price they can afford.

It’s clear that Paul Polak will not run out of innovative new ideas any time soon. The septuagenarian celebrates his 74th birthday in 2008, with absolutely no plans to retire…ever.

The Poverty Paradox:
There is a Chinese proverb that says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” However, to be able to fish, he will need a fishing pole and perhaps even a boat. Now, what do you do? Do you donate the pole and boat? Do you walk away if he can’t afford to buy what he needs? Or do you teach him how to generate enough income to be able to purchase the pole and boat himself?

The Out of Poverty Solution:
You ask him to pay for his own equipment, but assist him in earning the money. Unless he purchased the pole and boat himself, he would have no investment in succeeding as a fisherman. The pole and the boat would soon fall into disrepair and the fisherman would return home and wait… for someone to give him a fish.

Taking Action to End Poverty:
Practical Things You Can Do
1.    (If you like the ideas in Out of Poverty)…get 10 other people to read it and encourage them to act on what they learn from it.
2.    Stop pitying poor people.
3.    Learn as much as you can about poor people in your neighborhood, their specific problems, and the specific context in which they live and work.
4.    Become informed about the realities of global poverty and what can be done about it.
5.    Invest in viable businesses serving poor customers.
6.    Contribute time and money to organizations that demonstrate specific scalable impacts, and make them accountable for whatever time or money you provide.

Linda Potter is a popular local speaker, published author, licensed spiritual counselor and the managing editor of The Healing Path magazine. Linda has been inspired by Paul Polak and his work since she first met him in 1991. lindampotter@comcast.net